nChain Acquires Majority Stake in HandCash Wallet for Bitcoin Cash

LONDON, May 21, 2018 — nChain Group, the leading blockchain research and development group, has closed deal terms to acquire a majority stake in HandCash. HandCash is a Bitcoin Cash mobile wallet which uses near field communication (NFC) technology to make it as easy for users to send Bitcoin Cash to someone as if they were handing cash. The deal was made through nChain Group’s investment entity, nChain Reaction Ltd.

HandCash was co-founded in Spain by Alejandro Pascual Agut and Rafael Jiménez Seibane. With NFC technology, the mobile application allows mobile wallets to complete instant transfer of Bitcoin Cash funds with each other through “contactless” means once users’ mobile devices are in close proximity to each other (similar to contactless credit card and Apple Pay functionality).

HandCash co-founder Alex Agut explains: “Bitcoin was conceived to be peer-to-peer electronic cash. We wondered why Bitcoin was not being used like cash. That gave us the idea to create a wallet application that allows you to send Bitcoin in a way that resembles handing someone cash, by merely placing a sender’s mobile device close to the recipient’s device. That’s why we named our project HandCash. We also knew the application could only work on Bitcoin Cash, with its low fees and instant confirmations.”

HandCash also makes it easier to send Bitcoin Cash without having to ask for a complicated receipt address or even a QR code, as most current Bitcoin applications require. Instead, users can identify and send funds to each other using “handle” names. In addition, users can keep their funds safe with easy ways to back up their wallets on the cloud or inside any NFC chip.

HandCash also supports growth of Bitcoin Cash for merchant payments, with plans to create easy “contactless” payment mechanisms at the retailer point-of-sale. Its anticipated payment features will ignite greater merchant adoption of Bitcoin Cash.

HandCash co-founder Rafa Seibane remarks: “In addition to financial investment, nChain will provide us access to its research, intellectual property and deep Bitcoin Cash expertise. We believe this technical support will give HandCash advantages in becoming a leading Bitcoin Cash wallet and payment system.”

nChain Group CEO Jimmy Nguyen comments: “For Bitcoin Cash to grow, user interfaces need to become better and easier to use. We are impressed with HandCash and its vision for simplifying the Bitcoin Cash transaction process to a contactless approach. nChain is thrilled to support HandCash on its journey to make Bitcoin Cash wallets and payment systems easy to use around the world, and to ignite global adoption of Bitcoin Cash.”

nChain’s deal with HandCash follows just days after the May 15, 2018 protocol upgrade for the Bitcoin Cash network. This recent upgrade implements two key changes:

Increasing the default size of blocks on the Bitcoin Cash blockchain from 8MB to 32MB; and

Restoring certain OP_Codes for advanced functionality.

The BCH 32 MB default block size is significantly larger than Bitcoin Core (BTC)’s small 1 MB block. This larger block size allows BCH network capacity to be over 8 million transactions per day, which is more than PayPal processes. This ensures usage of BCH can rapidly grow while maintaining the capacity needed to process greater transaction volumes, at fast speeds, but keeping fees very low. The upgrade validates HandCash’s vision in creating its wallet product for Bitcoin Cash.